Sunday, June 16, 2013

Fukrey is largely a funny film

Fukrey, produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment, is a small little film that came out this weekend. The first trailer did invite me to watch the film, specially with the compelling Delhi (read Daehli) flavor that it reeked of. But then it looked like another coming of age story of 4 young guys who are out to have some fun. The music album struck a chord with one delectable song by a brilliant singer. And then it chose to clash with the magnam-opus, Man of Steel. Sometimes I wonder aloud the reasoning behind the decision, irrespective of how average Man of Steel was. Fukrey works for most parts, and provides you enough moments of bursting laughter as well.Directed and co-written by first timer Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, Fukrey is positively not the run of the mill coming of age story. In fact, it is sort of like a heist film built around a leap of faith. Screenwriters Vipul Vig and Lamba draw you into the world of four nobodies in Delhi, two of which are friends (Hunny and Choocha) from before but the pack comes together for one common reason, to make some quick cash. A wily female don, funnily named Bholi Punjaban, comes on board, to invest in their idea, and when the plan foils, to lynch their guts. A simple plot, profuse of fresh ideas and premises, Fukrey benefits from genuinely hilarious set pieces and one marvelously sketched character, but the suffers from a lack of coherence in its plot where not all pieces fall together in communion. The writers invest their heart and soul into building up four interesting characters who arent necessarily friends from before and the efforts do pay off well. Rooted well in the nuances of a Delhi-ite, our leads are thoroughly enjoyable with all their shameless notoriety, frequent swanning and continuous fallibility. Choocha, played by Varun Sharma, stands out and how. A delicious character churned out of a sidekick role length evokes generous laughs every time he talks. Bholi Punjaban is a fresh take on the characters of female dons, aided more by acting than writing. But Fukrey never leaves you in stasis. Continual banter between Hunny and Choocha, or the track involving the third guy, Lali, in a repetitive alterations of a situation where in he loses some part of his motorcycle are intoning of a much better writer in Lamba. How one wishes an equal focus was given to cover some loose ends of the plot and this one would be a winner! Fukrey has been mounted tremendously well by Excel Entertainment with Farhan and Ritesh themselves showing up for most promotions. Ram Sampath's musical capture of the Delhi milieu is pretty accurate, with Ambarsariya being the covert gem in Sona Mohapatra's voice. Mohanan's cinematography is easy on the eyes, while Anand Subaya has used his editing knife well. The spot-on casting by Honey Trehan must be credited heavily to make this film work and lend a certain melange to every dialogue. The acerbically sweet dialogues only accentuate the setup and you will find yourselves laughing for many minutes on atleast four instances.Pulkit Samrat (Hunny), Varun Sharma (Choocha), Manjot Singh (Lali) and Ali Fazal (Zafar) - the four leads are a riot together, with Sharma easily taking the cake followed by Manjot and Samrat. Running with roughly the same role sizes, the boys are a raging river in flood delivering spirited performances that palpably match the tone of the film. The surly words flow in with the mayhem of immatures and what you witness is some real new talent out there, save for Manjot Singh who has already proved himself many a times. Richa Chadda's Bholi Punjaban oscillates between superb and choppy for me, where in the character loses its own skin due to inept writing. Pankaj Tripathi's vast reserves of acting are under-utilized as thecollege gatekeeper who has a jugaad for anything. On the whole, Fukrey is a slice of life film with a fresh premise and characters which doesnt quite hit the spot due to incoherence. It is still a reason enough to watch for Lamba's next venture. It has opened low on the Box Office but I am hoping that some word of mouth will help this little film against a strictly okay Hollywood biggie. Watch it for the earnest efforts and some genuine hilarity!